Chapter 278 - Melicia, The Angel, The Witch, The Betrayer Of All
Chapter 278 - Melicia, The Angel, The Witch, The Betrayer Of All
Chapter 278 - Melicia, The Angel, The Witch, The
Betrayer Of All
Trapped in his underground training facility right by the territory Haruki had
reclaimed, Inferno was fuming in rage yet his soul siblings deterred him from taking a
step outside. Bound to a chair by a lever mechanism pulling him down on it with
chains, Inferno could easily tear it apart, yet the only reason he didn't do so was
because deep within he knew his rage was a product of rampant emotions.
"Fuck you all!" But that didn't mean he wouldn't let his frustration be known,
especially when he'd lost his army trying to cover for the two who'd been missing for
more than two days at this point. "Merciella, Deus, and Reya, you too! You're all a
bunch of morons who can't do a single thing right! Do you know how much it taints
my name to lose a territory that I'd occupied not even a month ago?!"
"Inferno, calm down!" Merciella yelled back crossing her arms.
Between the two, Deus knew who was at fault, however, opening his mouth or even
letting Inferno loose would've been the biggest mistake he could ever make. Only if
Michael wasn't accompanying Haruki or if they had Asmodia, the three of them
might've stood a chance against the demon lord of lust as well as the dragon slayer,
but with the strongest of all demon lords dead, there was no way they could defeat
them on their own.
"Aghhhhhh!" Further enraged by Merciella's confrontational attitude, Inferno finally
decided to break through the chains. Once unshackled, he stood tall and started
walking towards his soul sister. And although Deus was witnessing it all, he had no
plans to protect that monster. "Reya, I can understand she's never been the one to
fight on the frontlines, but you, Merciella! What the fuck were you doing?!"
Walking backward as Inferno kept stepping closer and closer to her, Merciella tried to
keep up some distance between her and Inferno. But tripping onto the rotting body of
one of the royal guards Inferno had killed a while back, she fell down onto her butt
and couldn't do anything more than hopelessly look up at her older brother.
"Inferno stop, please!" Merciella pleaded, covering her face from the flames that were
soon to come.
Grunting out loud with flames pressured out through the gaps in his teeth, Inferno
drew his hand back to teach Merciella a lesson. As his fist began to burn, however, the
sudden opening of the underground hall's door stole Inferno's attention.
Leaping back, he readied himself to face whatever or whoever was on the end side.
Expecting an enemy as well, Deus conjured up his guns and even summoned an
Astromech model that appeared like a fusion of a kangaroo and a bunny. As for
Merciella who was still down on the bloody ground, she only had enough time to turn
towards the door to see who they were about to be facing.
While three kept a stern watch on the door, it flung right open with nobody standing
on the other side. At first, they wondered if it was the wind that pushed the door
open, but as the trio noticed a shadow eerily move towards them from under the door
frame, they all went back into their defensive state.
Stomping the ground, Inferno set flame to the dried blood layered across the floor.
With everything instantly catching fire, the room for shadows was near to none,
forcing Haruki to crawl out of the ground before he was stuck into the ground.
"Haruki?!" Deus exclaimed, his eyes wide open.
"What the fuck?!" Merciella yelped, getting back on her feet.
Like always, Inferno had another means to relay his shock, which happened to be in
the form of anger. The fist he'd clenched shut for Merciella, he decided to rush over to
Haruki with it. Storming through the flames, he marched like a Pegasus with loops of
flames left behind his every step.
Inches away from Haruki, Inferno swung his fist towards his face, but before it could
make contact, he noticed in his eyes a different kind of glow that he hadn't seen while
fighting him in the arena.
"What did you do?!" Breaking his strike by jumping back, Inferno knew that standing
before him wasn't the same Haruki he'd met in the Colosseum.
"I don't have much time for explanation," saying those words, Haruki used mana to
create a steam of vapor to put out the flames around the room. "Michael has gone
back to the castle for some reason, and while I've tricked my battalion with a clone I
doubt it'll be long before they figure out that that's not me."
Taking a few steps forward, Haruki got closer to Inferno and peered right into his
eyes with a determined gaze. Knowing well enough that backing down or appearing
reserved would only make things harder in front of someone like Inferno, he wanted
to set the tone of their conversation beforehand.
"Asmodia isn't dead yet, we met in purgatory while I was looming between life and
death," the moment Haruki revealed the news, Deus and Merciella let out an audible
gasp as for Inferno his eyes widened eye further as he stumbled a few steps back.
"There's a way to bring her back and that's why I had to pretend to be the emperor's
servant."
"What about my army then?!" Inferno growled, still pissed off about his lost soldiers.
"Unlike lust, my men are born from flame and can't be made overnight!"
Placing his hand on the side of Inferno's arm, Deus pulled him back before his temper
worsened the situation. Being possibly the only one capable of sound negotiation,
Deus wanted to know more about this contract before making any decisions toward
helping Haruki.
"Even if you revive her, how would you escape the emperor's curse? What does doing
this for her, have for you?" Deus asked, a subtle frown riding across his forehead.
Taking a moment in silence to collect an answer, Haruki drew a deep breath before
replying.
"She'll die eventually, but according to our contract I can only kill her when I've
replaced Atlas as this world's god," starting with the heavier part, Haruki knew he
would raise plenty of eyebrows, and that is exactly what happened. "That said, we
can't kill each other until then, and I have to help her be revived in exchange for a life
without the meddling of gods and demons alike."
The last part of the explanation loosened up the tension in the room a little, but even
now there were plenty of questions that needed to be answered. One of which Deus
was just about to ask.
"And how do you plan on doing it?" He muttered.
"I need a total of three people to revive her," holding his hand forward he tried to open
a dungeon portal window to show something, but it failed as the emperor had
restricted his use of the ability. Clicking his tongue, he washed his frustration off with
a shake of the head.
"What the fuck do you need, applause or something? Just tell us what you need!"
Stilling raging, Inferno howled at Haruki.
Ignoring him, Haruki scoffed before speaking out the names of the three people
instead of showing them through the portal.
"First I need Moriyana Malice, she's…Never mind, the other person is Reya, the demon
lord of sloth. As for the last, I need Reya to summon her so we can visit the land of
fairies, and open the path to purgatory to get Asmodia's soul," laying out his plans,
Haruki tried to remember everything he could that he'd learned through the books of
arcane in the emperor's library. Even though it had been a pain trying to decipher
them to an intelligible degree, doing so with his affinity for lost tongue helped him a
long way.
"None of this makes sense," Merciella retorted, and to some degree, the other two
were in agreement.
After all, why would Haruki need to visit the land of fairies? Disregarding even that,
there was no way Reya would've been able to open a portal to purgatory since if it
was so simple why wouldn't they have done it already? However, that is when the
massacre of Infernal demons came into play.
Reaching into his cloak, Haruki took out a luminous glass jar shimmering with a
rampant soul ready to burst out of their clear prison. Enveloping it in a mask of
darkness, Haruki hid its light again before putting it back inside his white cloak.
"Mellicia the witch, an angel of pathways, and melody, that's whom I need Reya to
summon, and once we offer her these souls in exchange for Asmodia, we can revive
her with some extra effort," still keeping parts of his plans a secret, Haruki let them on
all everything they needed to know.
For a moment, the trio seemed dumbfounded and not that convinced by the whole
plan, but since the clock was ticking and they had little time they ultimately had no
choice but to agree to Haruki's plan.
"Sure enough Mellicia is a witch that can open a portal to heaven, hell, earth, and even
purgatory, but even then convincing her to help a demon would not be an easy task,"
Dues pointed out, worried about the possibility of failure.
"These souls aren't the only ones I'm going to offer her," with an expecting god
waiting for Haruki on the other side of that portal, he had not one but two excellent
bargaining chips to use. "So, have you heard of Destinia and her kingdom of fairies?"
With a maniacal smile, Haruki went on to discuss a massacre that would leave the
land of fairies barren like a dessert.